wrote in message
oups.com...
OK, now you guys have me worried. It is a cement block wall that we
had intended to build - and it sounded simple. I am especially worried
about the wind part - we live in a very windy area - in fact today have
a high wind advisory. So what do you suggest for a way to block the
patio from the wind and provide a heat sink - just a wooden fence?


Don't get discouraged just yet! A 5' wall of CMU is very do-able. Follow
the advice of others and make sure you have an adequate footing under there.
A few points. Check with your local inspection/permit office for what's
needed for a wall this size. This will tell you a lot in terms of the
complexity you're under. I just built an 80' or so long by 5'6" high adobe
wall here in NM (very different beast altogether) and didn't need to pull a
permit at all so local rules will govern what you need to do. For such a
short length, I wouldn't hesitate to overbuild the footer a bit just for a
bit of safety margin. Laying block can be frustrating no matter what you
do only for the fact that getting the morter on the block can be a real art
(at least it is for me....I can never seem to get the mortar to either stick
or go where I want it to!). When you dig out the footer, and I suspect
you'll have to go down a fair bit given your climate, you'll be able to tell
pretty quickly what's causing the crack that you describe. If it is in
fact a tree root and it crosses where the footer will go, you will have to
remove it. Once the footer is in place, you will need to build up the wall
with rebar vertically and possibly horizontally as well (may be able to just
use ladders). Again, your inspector should be able to help with the
details. You will find as well that most places require the vertical
cavities in the block to be filled with concrete every so many feet and that
is quite easy to do. So at the risk of continuing to ramble here, I would
highly recommend taking a trip to your local building office and start
talking with them. They're really going to know what you need to do in
your situation. Everyone's is different and you don't want to underbuild
it and over building it too much costs more $$. It really isn't difficult,
just a bit of hard work and getting the knowledge of what's needed, locally.
Sorry for the ramble....
Cheers,
cc